The subject matter herein relates generally to an electrical connector for terminating an electrical cable having a cable shield.
Electrical connectors that terminate electrical cables may include a housing that provides shielding for one or more electrical contacts held by the housing. For example, the housing may include an electrically conductive coating (e.g., a plating), an electrically conductive shell, and/or another electrically conductive structure that extends around the electrical contacts for shielding the electrical contacts. The shield of the housing is terminated to a shield (e.g., a cable braid) of the cable that provides shielding for one or more electrical wires of the cable. The shielding provided by the housing shield and the cable shield may reduce electromagnetic interference (EMI) emissions from the cable assembly of the electrical cable and the electrical connector. EMI emitted from the cable assembly may harm the signal integrity and/or electrical performance of neighboring electrical devices, for example. Moreover, government regulations may require that EMI emissions from the cable assembly be contained to a predetermined level.
The EMI shielding of at least some known cable assemblies may be inadequate because of the increasing signal speeds being transmitted through cable assemblies. For example, the connection between the housing shield and the cable shield may leak EMI above certain signal speeds, such as above approximately 10 gigahertz (GHz). Some known cable assemblies wherein the cable shield is a cable braid that is dressed over a ferrule of the housing may be especially susceptible to EMI leakage at the interface between the cable braid and the ferrule because of the flare of the cable braid over the ferrule.
Accordingly, there is a need for an electrical connector that reduces EMI emissions.